


Nachle

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Ramayana fics [16]
Category: Ramayana - Valmiki
Genre: Canon Compliant, Court Dynamics, F/M, Female Friendship, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Oneshot, Period-Typical Victim Blaming, celestial beings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 02:11:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16714564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Rambha makes her first reappearance as Queen of the Apsaras, after Ravana’s attack on her. A brief look at Rambha, Nalkuber, and Urvashi. Oneshot.Title means “dance” in Hindi.





	Nachle

**Author's Note:**

> Rambha is the Queen of the Apsaras, who was raped by Ravana. Her husband, Nalkuber, cursed Ravana that if he ever forced himself on another woman, his head would split into seven pieces, thereby protecting Sita when she was kidnapped. Urvashi is another apsara who is noted for her relationships with various men, notably Pururava and Arjuna.

Rambha makes her first reappearance in Devaloka after Ravana’s rape with her husband at her side. He asks her, beforehand, if he would like him there. Some might think it out of protectiveness, or a defiant public show of gallantry, but what Rambha remembers is that he does not insist on accompanying her, but leaves it as her decision.

He gives -- and respects --  her choices, and more than any gesture of solidarity, that means the most to Rambha.

His presence is a quiet solid sentinel at her side, silencing most of the whispers and jeers, although the odd looks her people send her way remain. Nalkuber is a yaksha, though, a creature of the forest and trees, while Rambha is a spirit of the clouds and water, and eventually business in his own kingdom calls him back to earth for a time. She is not afraid to step foot in her own court, and she has crafted a fearsome enough reputation for herself as Queen of the Apsaras, even without her husband’s seven-sharded curse, but the whispers still rise like an angry swarm of mosquitos, the first time she appears in public without him by her side. A woman’s honor blighted is tragedy; a goddess’s virtue defiled is incomprehensible, and no one knows how to answer the question that is Rambha’s place in respectable society.

That is when Urvashi steps forward. She has always drawn everyone’s attention naturally, and all eyes turn towards her now.

She bows her head to her queen, hands folded in respect. Belatedly everyone else remembers to do so, in a great rustling of cloth and tinkling of jewels. Urvashi steps forward to touch her feet and murmurs something inconsequential about the dances to be performed later that evening. A normal gesture, performed a hundred times during previous ordinary court sessions, but with it, it is as though Urvashi has given an unspoken signal to the room, and the tension eases.

Rambha commands the lives of the apsaras, unquestionably, but it is Urvashi who commands their instincts, who sways them and persuades them and softens them. Most whisper it is because she is the most beautiful apsara of all, but Rambha thinks it is because of the brisk efficiency with which Urvashi seeks her intentions: whether it be humbling some arrogant sage, securing Indra’s ear on some matter, or displaying a new dance. Pururava’s beloved has never feared desire, nor its victims, and where she leads, much of the court will follow.

Let people whisper that Rambha must feel forever inferior to Urvashi, who outshines her own Queen in both beauty and now purity as well. The Queen smiles at her lady-in-waiting, more grateful than she can say. No need for words, when Urvashi has a new rhythm for the court to follow.

They are both apsaras, after all, and springing into a new dance step with little warning is natural for them.


End file.
